May 23, 2019 - NSOLO to TENA TENA LODGE

May 23, 2019

Last night Beth and I both ordered hot water service (we have French presses in our rooms) and wake up call for 5:30AM, but they never appeared. Granted we have been royally spoiled along the way, but this camp truly has some service issues to resolve. We had specifically asked the camp manager right before we turned in, he confirmed, and we thought it was taken care of....not. My shower this morning was lukewarm water and it’s pretty cold this morning so it wasn’t a great way to start the day. Oh well, like i said, these are truly minor problems. We packed our bags, had a nice breakfast and lots of coffee around the bonfire, and headed out at 7:30 for our game drive and transfer to our new lodge, Tena Tena, on the other side of the river. This time the guide took us to a completely different area and we found lots of wildlife - finally! The scenery was beautiful, no burned grass, instead the picturesque bush that we are used to seeing. I had a few goals this morning: to get good pictures of a sausage tree, the hippos among the Nile cabbage, and a Puku. ✅✅✅. We also saw elephants, lots of birds, crocodiles, impala (the McDonalds of the bush as one of our guides put it), kudu, and best of all a lion family - Mama and 2 cubs about 2 months old, and a young male. They were still on the move this morning instead of sleeping which is what we frequently find. We were able to follow the Mom and cubs for a little bit as they strolled down the road, but eventually they departed the road for the bush, looked back at us once more, and disappeared. We stopped for a coffee and tea break overlooking an expansive open meadow filled with the grazing stock before making our way to the river to meet our next handler. We boarded a very large aluminum Mokoro with a guide who deftly guided us through the maze of hippos across to the other side where a safari jeep was waiting to take us to Tena Tena. I was happy to be leaving the Nsolo camp for many reasons already stated but we were also quite disappointed in our guide. He was nice enough, but didn’t show any real passion for the animals or birds, or any passion on educating us along the way. The guides we have had up until now have been effusive about nature, excited to observe the animals and birds, and full of interesting stories about how they mate, their habitats and behaviors. Our other guides would stop and try to identify tracks in the sand and then tell us what animal had passed by, which direction and when. There was none of that with our guide. He hardly talked to us at all, and just drove around seemingly without much effort to find game. It was a disappointing experience for us, so I am glad to be on to the next (but sad that it’s also the last) destination. Arrival at Tena Tena was very welcoming and they seem to have great hospitality so far. Lunch was delicious, and here we can serve ourselves from the bar if nobody is around! Nice touch. Now we siesta before our 4PM game drive. The weather is cooling off a little bit so it isn’t as stifling hot as the past few days.

Set out at 4pm for our game drive as it began to cool down, thankfully. First up was a steady stream of baboons making their way back from the lowlands to roost in the high trees for the night safe from the leopards. There were probably a hundred of them, all ages and sizes, with the babies being the most entertaining. If mom would get too far away they would screech at the top of their lungs until Mom would come fetch them. We watched a baby that was a little older chase after Mom and with both at a full gallop, the baby took a flying leap and jumped onto her back riding her like a cowboy! The late afternoon sun accentuated the beautiful color of the golden baboons. Around another bend was a solo male giraffe ambling along, again...the afternoon sun making the colors of his beautiful coat just pop. Interspersed throughout this area are lovely little wetlands and ponds attracting lots of birds, so we stopped at several of these to watch them feed. For quite some time we watched a yellow billed stork fishing in a small pond. We observed as he would lift one wing to provide shade which apparently confuses the fish and makes it easier to catch them. Sundowner time! We watched the sunset on the banks of the river while sipping our wine and cocktails before taking a night game drive on our way back to camp. Lots of elephant shrews, a couple new night birds, a hyena sighting that was so fleeting I couldn’t get any decent pictures. We watched him as he trotted right through the middle of the hundreds of impalas acting as if he didn’t want to eat them, when in fact it’s a strategy of his because what he’s really doing is trying to identify the weak one that he can target. A hyena can not outrun an impala, in fact only the cheetah can keep up, so lions and leopards rely on the art of stealth stalking or the surprise encounter, or like the hyena find the weak or injured member of the herd. Back at camp dinner is waiting for us, so we forgo showers and sit down at the table coated with dust. But nobody cares, this isn’t a “dress up for dinner” sort of place, it’s come as you are which suits us perfectly.